


Some of Us Are Human

by cosim18



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-25
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-18 03:11:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7297114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosim18/pseuds/cosim18
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The constant reminder of his own humanity weighs heavy on Stiles' heart and mind, so much so that it's not fear of death that drives him anymore. It's the fear of leaving behind those who he loves and those who have loved him. He couldn't bare the idea of living on with any more of his friends dead or gone, and he knew he would cause unbearable pain for those in his life if he himself were to die. The first indication that his place as the sole human of the pack made him vulnerable was when Gerard kidnapped him, beat him to show Scott the consequences of facing a seasoned, albeit corrupt, hunter. His use to hurt those around him, simply by being present and mortal, hardens Stiles' resolve to solve the mysteries and protect his friends and family. He could never leave Scott, his best friend and brother in every way except blood, but internalizing the anger and anxiety of their constant exploits was his only way to cope with the stresses of running with the supernatural.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The typical teenage worries over failing a class or getting Lydia, the supposed love of his life, to notice him were long gone. After he was forced to leave Lydia on the lacrosse field, lest Peter kill her right then and there, Stiles became painfully aware of the fact that life was much more complicated than he’d anticipated. It was no longer about getting good grades or playing lacrosse and video games with his best friend. Instead it was now about staying alive, staying sane with the madness of the supernatural and trying to keep it a secret, staying human with the choices they were forced to make. 

Life is a mess, in both good ways and bad, for everyone these days. Scott is still adjusting to life as a werewolf, including keeping the peace with Allison’s dad while learning more about control and the full extent of his werewolf-itude. Allison on the other hand is still avoiding Derek, but she’s happy to see Scott alive and well, even if it’s slightly awkward for the two of them. Lydia is slowly becoming closer to pack as the days go by, now fully steeped in the supernatural world after she resurrected Peter and brought Jackson back from the kanima. Stiles is happy for the start of a new school year, a fresh beginning to their ever-hectic lives, but is still concerned for his dad, in more ways than he ever had been before. He knew there would be no way to hide the supernatural from him forever, especially considering the close call he’d had with Gerard, and Stiles was terrified of his dad getting injured after encountering a supernatural creature, but he was even more scared of the idea of his dad ending up alone if Stiles were to be killed.

He had never heard his dad as scared as he did when Stiles was still missing after the last lacrosse game. His voice shook, but rather than anger being the cause, as was often the case at work, it was shaking out of fear and concern for his son. When he saw his dad standing in his bedroom, running his hand through his hair and shaking slightly, he realized he was more like him than he’d realized. His mannerisms, especially when upset or scared, were eerily similar. The sound of his voice as he muttered to himself asking where his son was just about broke Stiles’ heart. The sheriff was never supposed to get involved in any of this shit, nowhere near the danger and unaware of exactly what Stiles and his friends were going through. But that night, being taken by Gerard, changed everything for the both of them. Even though his dad bought his story about the rival team beating him up for being cocky, Stiles hated to have to lie to his dad in such a drastic way. He would’ve loved for the sheriff himself to bust down the Argents’ door and arrest Gerard, but that would’ve only made things worse, and Stiles knew neither he nor his dad were ready for the sheriff of Beacon Hills to know about the supernatural. Therefore, Stiles had no way to explain why the principal of his school would beat him up. Not that his dad would’ve believed him anyway. Scott had been the trustworthy one of the two, ratting them out whenever Stiles planned to do something too dangerous, and the sheriff knew he could count on his son’s best friend to keep him out of trouble. Or at least he used to, though he didn’t know that yet. No, it was in that moment, when he saw the pain and anger in his father’s face as he assessed the damage done to Stiles, that he decided to not tell his dad the other half of the equation in Beacon Hills. At least not until it was absolutely necessary. The less he had to worry about, the better, especially considering his dietary habits.

His father had always been good at pep talks. Awkward, but helpful nonetheless. When he told Stiles that he was a hero that night, a hero to the team for winning the game, Stiles’ heart sunk. The true game, Gerard’s game, had left him a loser, almost as bad as Erica and Boyd, who’d been strung up and forced to watch Gerard hit their classmate, and he couldn’t even tell Scott about it because that was exactly what Gerard wanted. He wanted Scott to know that he and his friends were expendable, and who better to demonstrate that than his own best friend, the frail human? Stiles suddenly wondered – was that the whole point? Did Gerard know that Stiles wouldn’t want to let Scott know, wouldn’t want to make his best friend realize that Stiles was expendable, so that Stiles would be weaker for it? Did he know that by keeping it a secret, letting it eat away at him, Stiles would now be painfully aware of the dangers of running with the wolves, and therefore the strategist of the pack would be incapacitated, both physically with the beating and emotionally with the weight of his mortality?

Regardless of the answer, Stiles had decided not to tell Scott. Enough time has passed by now that Scott would likely react even more negatively, perhaps even upset with Stiles for not telling him sooner. But as Stiles realized that night, when Gerard’s men dragged him away from the field, from safety, he couldn’t always rely on Scott to be there, couldn’t rely on him to always save the day. Because at the end of the day, Stiles was human, and always would be if he had a say in it. He’d seen what being a werewolf could do to a person’s life, and while there were possibly enough good things to cancel out the bad, Stiles didn’t want that responsibility. Irrationality, anxiety, and anger would not be a good combination for the supernatural, he just had a sense.  
During the hostage situation at the police station, Stiles for the first time in his life stopped caring what would happen to him and worried more about his father’s life. He’d dealt with the kanima venom before, so being paralyzed wasn’t anywhere near as frightening. But as he dragged his helpless body along the hallway when Matt went back to the cells where his dad and Melissa were, Stiles only wanted to save them. Seeing Matt hit is dad just about stopped his heart, as his emotions took over and he thought the worst. A few seconds of clarity helped him realize that Matt only knocked the sheriff unconscious, and that his dad would likely be fine when he woke up, albeit with a headache. The rest of the night went by uneventfully for Stiles, as his priority was his dad and it wasn’t like he was able to help Scott and Derek anyway, with being paralyzed and all. 

He’d been forced to talk to Ms. Morrell about the events that took place at the station, and he found himself researching drowning. The peaceful voluntary apnea that drowning victims typically experience just before death, much like the peace the pack would feel before their junior year. Focusing on the research, and then on the physical task of restringing his lacrosse stick, was easier than focusing on the reality of the situation. The mild war that was to come between the sickly Gerard and the wolves. Following his beating, Stiles again felt the oppressive weight of the impending darkness he talked to Morrell about, like something bad was coming. He’d been feeling down, as any reasonable person would, after he was wounded both physically and mentally. But this was something different. While his mood had improved and he was hanging out with Scott, shooting lacrosse balls at him with ease, it felt as though there were an itch that he couldn’t scratch, a lead he had yet to investigate. He tried to put this all aside, but as anxiety does, it steadily crept back up, almost disappearing completely. But after returning from looking for a condom to use with Heather, Stiles knew something had to be wrong. He just didn’t know how bad things were about to get. The hell he and his pack were to go through hadn’t even truly begun yet.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place at the beginning of season 3, after Heather went missing.

There had been a stark lack of bad things happening lately, a sort of calm before a storm, and Stiles had foolishly bought into it. Practicing and conditioning for lacrosse in the off-season with Scott, hanging out with his friends, even driving Scott to a tattoo parlor for him to get his first tattoo. It seemed like a normal, typical high school teenager's life and after the turmoil of the last school year, Stiles was eager to settle back into a state of normalcy. Erica and Boyd were still missing, but wishful thinking had Stiles hoping they were happy and far away from the trouble of Beacon Hills. Besides, they were a part of Derek's pack, not Scott's, so they really weren't within the concern of the energetic teen. Stiles had heard about a party that his childhood friend was throwing, and he jumped at the opportunity for some fun, as both a way to catch up with Heather and as a way to distract himself from the supernatural aspect of his life.

The pure excitement and surprise that Stiles felt when Heather kissed him was not to be quickly extinguished, as she led him down to the wine cellar and announced that she wanted her first time to be with him. Of course, having not even considered the possibility of having sex, he didn't have a condom with him. After the fact, hours later when he identified the body, Stiles suddenly wondered if he had had a condom, if he hadn't needed to run upstairs and leave Heather alone, if she'd still be at home. He knew the statistics, and he knew that people didn't mysteriously disappear in Beacon Hills. His most logical assumption after talking to his dad in school the next day was that Heather was dead, or soon would be, but after everything Scott and his makeshift pack had been through already, Stiles just wanted to believe that for once something bad wouldn't happen.

As the day progressed, Heather was pushed to the back of his mind as he focused on school. The idea that she may be dead wasn't much of a consideration when Melissa called to talk to him, and his mind moved to its analytical mode as they discussed their theories about the similarity in the bodies. The threefold deaths screamed ritual to Stiles, and Melissa didn't seem far from agreeing, as the wounds were much more surgical and precise than any traumas caused by werewolves, or even hunters for that matter. They were on a roll, both thinking out loud, when Melissa pulled back the sheet on the second victim - Heather. The sight of her lifeless body, doubled with the wounds scarring her flesh, practically stopped Stiles' heart. He heard a numb ringing sound, and he stepped back, desperate to distance himself from the body. Time felt like it was slowing as the noise in his ears escalated to a roaring, and as he gasped for air Melissa finally understood what was wrong. She hadn't even considered that Stiles would know this young girl, and the fact that she subjected him to see such a close friend in this condition broke her heart. The son of the sheriff, Stiles had undoubtedly seen many things a boy his age shouldn't have, but to see someone he personally knew in that position was a different matter altogether. As a few tears gathered in his eyes, he realized this was the most personal death he'd known since his own mother died. Even though he'd mostly lost touch with Heather over the years, he remembered her cute face when they were both children, playing games and doing homework together.

With this loss, even without fully understanding the circumstances of the Darach and all the evil coming for the town, Stiles felt as though his childhood and innocence were officially gone. He'd become embroiled in a war between hunters and werewolves, getting beat up by an old man as a reward. His strongest connection to his mom and to life before the supernatural was dead with Heather's deceased body, and he couldn't help but blame himself, at least partially, for not having a silly condom when the time was right. Anger simmered, subtly, beneath the surface, but was overridden by fear and anxiety. Two bodies, with identical fatal wounds, could not be a coincidence. Theories and speculations abound, Stiles knew he had to see this through, if for no other reason than to do right by Heather's memory. He could tell they were on the precipice of something big, something worse than anything they'd faced before. The problem would be trying to figure it all out before things got much worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really not happy with how this turned out, but I wanted to get something down. Inspiration wasn't hitting me very much this week, so I apologize for the lackluster quality and shorter length. Hopefully the next chapter will be better developed and longer!

**Author's Note:**

> My intention for this fic is to chronicle Stiles' journey from the end of season 2 onward, picking up after the finale. As the series has continued, now heading into season 6, there has been a very frustrating lack of characterization of Stiles. I haven't quite worked out how I want to work with the timing in this fic, as I wanted to look at certain moments during the course of the show, so I'm not sure if each chapter will just jump in time to the next moment or if I want to move through the chapters on the same timeline as the show. If you have any ideas, please don't hesitate to let me know!


End file.
